All posts by Frederick Linsmeyer

A regular pop-drinking, hockey-watching, snow-shovelling Canadian, Frederick, aka Nephrus, loves his anime. Born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, Frederick runs amok between his hometown and the states of Illinois and Texas, spending time with friends, at anime conventions and looking for some good burgers or sashimi.

The Olympic Cauldron in Jack Poole Plaza next to the Vancouver Convention Centre was re-lit this evening to mark the closure of the 2018 Paralympic Winter Games. This is the second time the cauldron was used, following when it was first lit on February 8th, 2018 for the opening ceremonies of the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Once the torch was fired up, remarks were made by Paralympic athlete Trevor Hirschfield, Olympic athlete Evan Dunfee, Vancouver Convention Centre General Manager Craig Lehto, and MLA Ravi Kahlon thanking Canada’s Olympic and Paralympic teams for their performance, determination and passion this year.

If you’re like me, you probably keep your Compass card in your wallet. And, like me, you probably take your wallet out when going through the fare gates at a SkyTrain station, or stepping onto a bus. TransLink wants to change that with their new campaign to avoid keeping your Compass card in your wallet when tapping in and out on SkyTrain, buses, SeaBus and the West Coast Express. Why’s that? Later this spring, TransLink is taking advantage of Visa and MasterCards with the tap function to pay for fares instead of having to purchase a Compass card.

TransLink is looking to educate “wallet tappers” to take their Compass card (or other method of payment) out of their wallet, purse or bag, when entering or leaving a station or boarding a bus. If the cards are all kept together, the wrong card could end up being charged. That might be a huge difference as rides paid for using a stored value Compass card is much cheaper than buying an individual fare from a machine; or if you use a monthly pass for transit.

Using a Visa or MasterCard with the tap function doesn’t replace the existing Compass card, but is meant to provide more options, especially for people who don’t use transit often, or for tourists or visitors who aren’t committed to paying for a stored value card.

Yesterday’s Nintendo Direct shared a lot of information many gamers were aware of: Mario Tennis Aces, Splatoon 2 content, and so on. However, host Yoshiaki Koizumi held onto the best at the end of the roughly half-hour presentation: Super Smash Bros. is coming to Nintendo Switch in 2018.

The clip picks up after the Splatoon 2 announcements, where two inklings square off in a messy paint battle, only for the screen to go dark. The inkling girl stops and looks up to see the Super Smash Bros. circular logo reflected in her eye as reflections of Mario and Link briefly appear.

Preceding the Super Smash Bros. clip, Nintendo unveiled some of their 2018 line-up for both the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo 3DS consoles. Titles include:

During a match on Monday, March 5th, 2018 between the Vancouver Canucks and the visiting New York Islanders, forward Brock Boeser suffered an injury in the closing seconds of the third period.

Boeser, 21, collided with Cal Clutterbuck, tumbling to the ice with his back hitting the exposed frame of the door to the Canucks bench.

A statement posted by the Vancouver Canucks to Twitter stated Boeser will fully recover in 4 to 6 weeks. Imaging done at a local hospital found a “soft tissue injury and a small non-structural, non-displaced fracture of the transverse process in his lower back.”

On Wednesday, April 25th, 2018, for one day only, select Cineplex locations across Canada will show a digital remastered re-release of the 2004 film Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie.

The burning sands of the Egyptian desert hide a frightening secret: the spirit of Anubis. Sealed away since the times of past, Anubis has reawakened following the discovery of his tomb and is ready to seek revenge. Yugi and his rival Kaiba must duel it out to save themselves, their friends and stop Anubis from achieving his evil plan.

Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie will be shown dubbed in English. In addition to the film, fans can also catch the first episode of the sixth anime series, Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS.

US fans can catch Yu-Gi-Oh! The Moviein two showings on Sunday, March 11th and Monday, March 12th, 2018.

Additional cars to increase capacity on both SkyTrain lines and the Canada Line is being accelerated according to an announcement made by TransLink CEO Kevin Desmond on Friday, February 23rd.

The first 28 cars destined for the Expo and Millennium Lines will arrive in early 2019, followed by another 28 cars toward the end of 2019. A further 24 cars are on order for the Canada Line which are expected before the end of 2020.

The original order of the cars was made in 2016 under Phase 1 of the region’s 10 year vision for transit which includes a 20% increase for rail service.

Statistics provided by TransLink show that ridership is up by 5.7 percent, reaching 407 million boardings in 2017.

With D23 Expo taking place in Japan, the talk has focused around Kingdom Hearts III and if a new trailer for the title would drop. Square Enix and Disney surprised everyone with not one, but two teasers for Kingdom Hearts III.

The first video unveils a new world from Monsters, Inc., where Sora, Donald and Goofy, team up with Sully and Mike to scare children as they settle in for bed. Our protagonists even transform into these creatures, keeping inline with the rest of this denizens from this Disney comedy. There’s also additional scenes from the Toy Story and Tangled worlds, where Sora gets to showoff some of his new moves. Interestingly enough, some familiar faces from Organization XIII make a return.

Utada Hikaru is back for a new song, titled Oath. She also performed the theme songs for the previous games in the series with Simple and Clean in Kingdom Hearts and Sanctuary in Kingdom Hearts II. Visuals include scenes with Riku, King Mickey, Xemnas and old villains Maleficent and Pete.

Kingdom Hearts III is expected sometime in 2018 for both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

How often is it you get to hear music from an anime at a sporting event? Japanese ice skaters Miu Suzaki and Ryuichi Kihara thrilled anime fans with a song from the series Yuri!!! on Ice for their pairs performance at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games.

The song, titled Yuri on Ice, was used by the main character, Yuri Katsuki, as the song for his free-style skating in the hit 2016 anime.

It wasn’t long before social media lit up with reactions from those watching. Yuri!!! on Ice creator, Mitsurou Kubo, even responded with her approval on Instagram with a photo of the pair skating overlaid by an image of Principal Skinner from the Simpsons giving a thumbs up pose.

Mitsurou Kubo’s Instagram featured a still photo of her watching the duo.

Don’t expect to find too many videos of Suzaki’s and Kihara’s dance online; the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is very strict over use of video taken at Olympic events.

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